The kick landed with a sickening thud, sending a jolt of white-hot agony through Lin Xiao's ribs. He tasted blood, metallic and warm, as he crumpled onto the hard-packed earth of the training ground, the dust coating his simple, worn robes.
"Hah! Look at him! The great young master Lin, still wallowing in the dirt where he belongs!"
The voice was a familiar, grating sneer. Lin Gang, his cousin, stood over him, his chest puffed out. The faint, shimmering aura of Qi around his body marked him as a cultivator of the third level of Qi Refining. To Lin Xiao, it was a pathetic display. To everyone else in the Vermillion Bird Clan, it was a sign of promise.
Impact force approximately 300 newtons. Qi reinforcement unstable, with a twelve percent energy leakage around the medial collateral ligament. A structural flaw.
The thoughts came unbidden, cold and analytical, a ghost from a life lived in front of glowing screens and complex data streams. Dr. Aris Thorne, once a legend in the realm of virtual strategy, was now trapped in the body of Lin Xiao, the clan's number one cripple.
"Don't you have anything to say, trash?" Lin Gang loomed closer, his shadow falling over Xiao. "Or have I knocked the last bit of spirit out of you?"
Xiao pushed himself up slowly, his movements deliberate. He met his cousin's gaze, his own eyes not filled with fear or anger, but with a detached, almost clinical assessment. This infuriated Lin Gang more than any curse.
"You dare look at me with those dead eyes?" Lin Gang roared, his Qi flaring. He drew back his fist, the air around it shimmering with destructive intent. "I'll put some life back into them!"
The other clan disciples watching from the sidelines laughed, their voices a cacophony of scorn. This was their daily entertainment. The strong preying on the weak. It was the natural order.
But today, the natural order was about to get a software update.
As Lin Gang lunged, a translucent blue screen, flickering with static like a bad connection, materialized in front of Lin Xiao's vision.
[Host physical integrity critically low.]
[Karma System v.0.1 booting...]
[...Boot sequence complete. Hello, User.]
Xiao's heart, for the first time since his transmigration, skipped a beat. A System?
[Mandatory Quest Generated: 'A Show of Force']
[Objective: Humiliate Lin Gang and establish a modicum of respect.]
[Reward: 50 Karma Points. Failure: Continued physical abuse and social degradation.]
There was no time to question it. Lin Gang's fist was inches from his face. The System was his cheat, his golden finger. He had to use it.
Analyze! He thought desperately.
The screen flashed.
[Target: Lin Gang. Cultivation: 3rd Level Qi Refining. Bloodline: Low-Grade Iron Ox (Inferior).]
[Notable Weaknesses: Prone to over-committing attacks. Left knee Qi flow is obstructed from old injury. Susceptible to emotional provocation.]
The information flooded his mind. He didn't need power. He needed precision.
Xiao didn't try to block. He moved. It was an awkward, stumbling sidestep, more a collapse than a dodge, but it was just enough. Lin Gang's empowered fist whistled past his ear. As Xiao fell, his hand shot out, not to strike, but to scrape against Lin Gang's knuckles.
Contact. Sample acquired.
"You're even more pathetic when you run!" Lin Gang bellowed, turning for another assault.
"Cousin," Xiao said, his voice quiet but clear, cutting through the noise. He slowly got to his feet, brushing the dust from his robes. "Your 'Iron Ox Strength' technique is impressive. But you're straining your left knee. The old injury from when you fell during the last clan hunt, remember? If you keep channeling Qi so recklessly, you'll sever the meridian completely by twenty."
The laughter from the sidelines died instantly.
Lin Gang froze, his face a mask of shock and confusion. How… how did the cripple know about that? The clan physician had told him the same thing in private.
"You… you're lying!" he stammered, but the uncertainty was there.
"Am I?" Xiao gave a weak, almost pitying smile. "The dull ache you feel right now, just below the kneecap… that's not from exertion. That's the Qi festering."
He was bluffing, of course. But it was a bluff backed by the System's cold, hard data. He saw the flicker of recognition in Lin Gang's eyes, the seed of doubt taking root.
"SHUT UP!" Lin Gang screamed, his face purpling with rage and humiliation. He was being lectured on cultivation by a mortal cripple! He charged again, this time with wild, unfocused fury.
Xiao stood his ground. "System," he thought, a plan forming with lightning speed. "How much for a 'Minor Qi Flare' illusion, set to the Golden Core realm, centered on me, for exactly 0.2 seconds?"
[Cost: 5 Karma Points. Host currently has: 0 KP.]
What? I'm broke?
[Insufficient Funds. Suggest alternative strategy.]
Lin Gang was almost upon him. Time was up. Xiao did the only thing he could. As Lin Gang threw a wild punch, Xiao took a small, calculated step forward, into the blow. He didn't resist. He let the force spin him around, and as he did, his elbow, driven by the momentum of the strike, slammed directly into the precise meridian point on Lin Gang's left knee that the System had highlighted.
It wasn't a powerful strike. It was a precise one.
There was a sound like a damp twig snapping.
Lin Gang let out a choked cry, not of pain, but of sheer, uncomprehending terror. His leg gave way beneath him as if the bone had turned to water. He crashed to the ground, clutching his knee, where a strange, numb coldness was spreading. He couldn't feel his Qi there anymore. It was… blocked.
Silence.
Absolute, dead silence.
The disciples stared, their mouths hanging open. Lin Xiao, the trash, the cripple, had just… won? Without a shred of Qi? He hadn't even thrown a punch!
Xiao looked down at his writhing cousin, then at his own hands. He felt a strange sensation, a faint connection to something vast and cosmic.
[Karmic Event Resolved: 'The Cripple's Counter']
[Karma awarded for: Publicly humiliating a bully (40 KP). Introducing doubt and fear into the clan (30 KP). Resolving a minor karmic conflict (20 KP). Total Award: 90 KP.]
[Current Karma Points: 90. Well begun, Host.]
A slow, genuine smile spread across Lin Xiao's face. It wasn't a smile of triumph, but of discovery. Of potential.
He turned and began to walk away, the crowd of disciples instinctively parting for him. None of them dared to meet his eyes.
He paused at the edge of the training ground and glanced back at the still-moaning Lin Gang.
"You should see a physician, cousin," he said, his voice no longer weak, but laced with a new, unnerving confidence. "That looks serious."
As he walked back to his lonely, dilapidated hut, the blue screen flickered happily in his vision.
[New Quest Available: 'A Guild's Last Breath.' Investigate the financial status of the Lin Merchant Guild. Reward: 100 KP.]
Finance. Now that was a language he understood.
The trash of the Vermillion Bird Clan was gone. In his place stood a man with a System, a mind full of strategies, and 90 Karma Points to spend.
The game had just begun.